Former THQ President Jason Rubin Has Mixed Feelings About Nintendo

Naughty Dog co-founder and THQ's last president during its operation, Jason Rubin, has some thoughts about the future of Nintendo. His sentiments come during a financially challenging year for the House of Mario, but one marked by a number of stellar titles.

"Nintendo is irrelevant as a hardware manufacturer in the console business," Rubin said to GameTrailers. However, he also believes that the company should release its games on other systems, calling Nintendo a "worldwide treasure."

Our TakeI assume that by "console business," Rubin means "home console business." The 3DS is doing huge numbers, and is home to one of the best received games of the year (The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds). Nintendo owns the handheld sector, and as long as it doesn't cave and push Pokemon and other IPs to mobile, that market stays alive.

As for the Wii U, there's no doubt that Nintendo is struggling. The console needs to be re-messaged, and 2014 has the potential to be a strong year for software. Super Smash Bros. Wii U, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and Yoshi Wii U are just the titles that we know about. An announcement of a new Zelda game on the system would cap things off nicely.

I was a little more pessimistic about the Wii U when it first came out, but now I believe Nintendo will manage to make the Wii u into a success. Perhaps nothing matching their previous consoles, but the Wii U will find it's way eventually.

As for Nintendo going multiplat, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they did it at some point down the line, but for that matter it wouldn't surprise me if Sony or Microsoft did the same. Depending on how bad their financial situations get, if they want to stay in the industry they'll have to.

"As for the Wii U, there's no doubt that Nintendo is struggling. The console needs to be re-messaged, and 2014 has the potential to be a strong year for software. Super Smash Bros. Wii U, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and Yoshi Wii U are just the titles that we know about. An announcement of a new Zelda game on the system would cap things off nicely."

This is my problem with Nintendo, they've been going down the Sega path for a while now. Your own IPs can only last you so long, they're getting stale. Do what Sony does so well, kill off your IPs and make new ones and maybe stop putting out embarrassing hardware that ages quickly. The WiiU is definitely Wii 2 quality, but half way between a PS3 and a PS4.

Nintendo does not need to quit the market, they need to stop being stubborn and get with the times. They've been this way since N64 (maybe even earlier), and there really is no reason for it. The Wii may have been a huge success but it has harmed Nintendo by inflating their egos after the Gamecube. One more failure probably would have done them in on the hardware front. Now, they are going to drag things out.

Nintendo isn't going anywhere. They aren't running out of money either. How quickly people forget that this is the company that sold over 100 million Wii's and over 150 million DS'. They are sitting on a lot of cash, just look at the list of best selling consoles of all time, aside from the PS2, Nintendo pretty much owns that list. With the release of some more quality titles Nintendo will start selling units. Nintendo doesn't really need third party support like Microsof and Sony do because Nintendo has always had first party games that sell their consoles. People buy Nintendo consoles to get games they cant get anywhere else and once those games release they'll be fine.

If Nintendo would drop a system with specs like the PS4/Xbox One, a lot of crow would be eaten. A LOT of crow. Also if Nintendo would listen to the fanbase to drop games we want (like how they finally did with Zelda a few weeks ago), it would be amazing. Where is F-Zero? Where is the 2D Metroid (would be amazing for the 3DS)? Heck, the for handhelds, where is Advance Wars?
Nintendo can do so much, just need to do it.

If they make their exclusives not exclusive they are dead, that's all they have, so do the others sure but the others can thrive without being dependent on exclusives unlike the Big N, which has been doing it since...well forever.

Also they should stop crapping out marios and zeldas and bring out other franchises that have been dormant(or ruined by the last game.)

Nintendo needs to do these couple things to kill the competition,
Remove region locking.
Fix major hardware issues. Like the upper screen getting scratched on the 3ds for example.
Make an account system.
Fire Reggie.
If they'd quit being stubborn and do those few things, their sales would skyrocket.

How stupid are you people. Why would nintendo go multiplatform because of one system that did not start out well. If they went multiplatform then the wii u would absolutely have no sales, it is an idiotic economic decision. I would rather nintendo go out of business in the console market and keep to the handhelds before it sends games to another system.You people would just rather be able to play zelda on your precious ps4 or xbox one. Stop being lazy and go buy a wii u like I did.

Everyone is always calling for Nintendo doom, because it has sucked so hard at making home consoles since the N64. Even though the Wii was a wild financial success it was not a great system for "hardcore gamers" and there's barely a game worth remembering on it outside of a Zelda or Mario game. With that said let me just go ahead and tell you that Nintendo is never going to become a third party developer like Sega. They're going to go down in a blazing ball of hardware failures and someone else will come around to grab the Zelda, Mario, etc rights once the fire gets put out.

Good. Any SANE person should have mixed feelings about Nintendo. It's not like everything they've ever done has been bullet-proof, super successful genius moves. And he's 100% right, they ARE irrelevant as a hardware manufacturer and a platform holder. This is OBVIOUS to everybody except Nintendo fanboys, who defend their nonsense with nothing substantial.

If you're going to insist on producing hardware, than you must accept responsibility for a)ensuring that the "ecosystem" around that hardware is healthy enough so that any good games - from you or any other publisher - can be successful, and b)you make something flexible & powerful enough so that developers aren't handicapped in any way. Nintendo does neither. In fact, they've had a downright combative relationship with other publishers for years. They're not just deaf to the needs of other developers, but they're practically xenophobic. They live in a bubble, and because they completely ignore the goings-on in the outside world, they end up doing unbelievably stupid things like slapping Wiiware with the 40MB size limitation. They think everything they do is fine, and that's good enough for them. They shouldn't be making hardware if that's how they think.

And their systems have always been unhealthy places for other companies to release games. But this doesn't even need detailing. This is obvious. They hate marketing in general; they barely market their own games (or, in the case with stuff like Wonderful 101 and LEGO City, they DON'T. At all)... they surely won't hype up something like Rayman Legends alongside Mario. Is it any wonder why they lose exclusives like nobody's business? Shovelware like Just Dance is the only thing that's seen consistent success on their hardware from 3rd parties. If you're working on a colorful, creative, fun family-friendly game, it makes more sense at this point to just go to Sony platforms with it. Since Sony has been doing a solid job of getting games like that out on their own. They've always had Ape Escapes, Crash Bandicoots, Jak & Daxters, Sly Coopers, Littlebigplanets & Knacks out there to maintain a healthy place for those games on their platforms.

They're a horrible first party hardware creator. They really should just stick to handhelds, and put out console games on Playstation platforms and PC's (Steam Machines). They hardly even seem like they're interested in console games any more to tell the truth - which falls in line with trends in Japanese development over the past 7 years unfortunately (though things are on an upswing in that regard). You look at how many games they have in development for the Wii U versus the 3DS, it's like 3:7 split - clearly, they want to stick to their handheld. Unless they change the way they handle their business - recalibrate the entire way they currently think - that's going to remain the truth. And EVERYONE this generation has been telling them that. At least Jason Rubin joins Ubi Soft in being nicer about it than, say, people from EA.

When the creator of Crash Bandicoot and the FOUNDER OF NAUGHTY DOG weighs in on things like this, Nintendo, stop ignoring it. This isn't some wackadoo on the fringes of the industry weighing in - it's not Michael Pachter. It's someone who knows a thing or two about developing games people love... just like you guys.

God, Nintendo has been frustrating to watch since 2010 or so. What have they been doing with all the money the Wii made them? They didn't prepare for HD game development at all. They didn't acquire any new teams or re-calibrate their existing ones to handle it. They didn't overhaul their infrastructure for any new technology or services. They don't seem to have a good idea for what to do with the touch screen on the Gamepad. They can't market most of their games effectively. They can't even make the games they want to put out by themselves anymore, as evidenced by Namco having to come in and actually develop major titles for them like Super Smash Bros.